How to return a drop shot with a tweener for a winner

It's hard to one-up Dustin Brown in the trick-shot department, but Elliot Benchetrit pulled it off Sunday at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown.

The 208th-ranked Frenchman tracked down a fine drop shot from the German veteran with a flight of finesse that would have brought a capacity crowd of any size to its collective feet, had there been fans in attendance. Trust me.

Tweeners are overdone, but tweener winners are still rare. Tweener winners on the run, at the net? Let's go to the video tape:

The shot is equally as impressive when you look at the stills (all photos from Ultimate Tennis Showdown):

First, a word about Brown. He's no drop-shot hacker; the 35-year-old has been carving balls over the net from all areas of a tennis court for years. These photos are not of the drop shot he hit before Benchetrit's tweener extraordinaire, but I include them to show Brown's focus and care with his delicate weapon:

The drop shot Brown struck before just before the below pictures were taken was from the baseline, rather than inside the court. That gave Benchetrit more time to react, but it still required an all-out sprint to get to the ball in time:

Once Benchetrit arrived, it was all about instinct—and not embarrassing himself with a mishit. But his timing was perfect, and the result was one of the nicest shots hit in Nice during the Ultimate Tennis Showdown. (Watch the mutli-week competition live at UTSlive.tv)

Bravo. It's too bad Benchetrit wasn't able to play a UTS card that reads, "Opponent must pull off the same winner you just hit." It would have been great to see Brown try.